A typical high voltage impulse radiating system such as, but not limited to, a Marx generator requires a high voltage impulse and a separate antenna structure. The inherent bulk of such systems generally precludes portability and mobility, which are required features for applications other than basic research.
A Marx generator charges, with a power source, capacitors staged in parallel and then discharges them in series in order to radiate a temporally short burst of voltage the magnitude of which is higher than that of the source. Each stage incorporates a switch designed to close at a predetermined voltage. At closure, the capacitor stages add, or, in the commonly understood industry terminology, “erect,” to form an overall capacitance that is equal to the individual stage capacitance divided by the number of stages, and the resultant output voltage is the individual stage voltage multiplied by the number of stages.